Social Media series part 3: how to stand out with photos and videos.

Pictures:
Taking a good photo is key. It will keep you above the rest. Especially of your selling something, it will help the buyer choose your item over a similar one from another shop. Use a nice white back ground. I purchased a white poster board I keep for photos. Have natural light. 12-5 is good lighting time where you should just be able to open the blinds a little and have a good crisp picture on your phone or tablet. Keep the light behind you. If your taking a pic of a person, have he light behind you not the object your taking the pic of because the back light will cause a glare and fuzzy picture. When the light is behind you he item is bright a clear. Eyes shine a twinkle and everything looks a million times better. Be creative in the view your taking. Get down on the ground. Eye level with whatever your taking a pic of. Kids are so much cuter when you get down on their level.   Use the tools in the editing portion of IG. they have updated it so you can adjust brightness and contrast, sharpness and focus. It makes all the difference.

15 seconds of fame:
 Use that video feature. 15 seconds goes a long way when we are such an instant gratification society. Talk to your people, show them your process, show them how an object works. It's fun. Then they can see your real and not a robot. The cool thing is that you can create video that has snipits of a process. You hold in the button then when you let go it stops then you hold it again and it records. That is how I have clips of sewing a skirt or something I am creating. There are cool things you can do with it.

Picture collages and slide shows:
There are other apps out here that you can make a quick slide show of your photos. This is great to show many customer photos in one post and it can be set to music. I use flipgram. You connect your IG account to it and it can be shared though many media sites. I love this as well. Especially when documenting an event. You don't want to over post and flood your followers feed so many a quick slide show. There are various collage apps that allow you to combine multiple photos into one. This is great when documenting an event or a process of something. You can customize the frames and add pic art and word art. It's fun.

What kinds of things should you take pictures of?  Nobody wants to see product shots all day. They know what those are by heading to your website. Some are good sometimes when launching a new product or making a style board etc...  People want to know who you are. This is their way to connect and relate to you. Tell funny stories, share good deals, spotlight your followers, or other shops.  Don't be a selfie taker all the time. The occasional is awesome but there are some that are flooding their feed with selfies.   Let people in to your personal life a little bit. It makes you real and personable. Write what your thinking. And let your eyes be the camera. Snap those moments where you walk into a room and your breath is taken away cause of how clean your bedroom finally is or how sad you are to tackle the 10 loads of laundry on your couch.

Taking great pics goes a long way. Take the time to practice and it will all become second nature. Have fun!!!

To see the other post about social media go HERE AND HERE